


She Made a Choice

by searchingwardrobes



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Death, F/M, Grief, I actually portray Neal positively for once, Sadness, Self-Sacrifice, season 3 canon divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-12 18:47:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10497276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/searchingwardrobes/pseuds/searchingwardrobes
Summary: "Emma did make a choice, Killian. It was you."Just a little season three canon divergence ficlet inspired by the end of X-Men 2. Actors James Marsden and Hugh Jackman just kill me with feels in that scene of two men, who have mostly been rivals, comforting each other after the death of the woman they both loved.  So, yeah, this one's gonna hurt.





	

**Author's Note:**

> * Some of the dialogue from this is almost verbatim from the end of X-Men 2.  
> * I know character wise, Killian is Wolverine through and through, but for the sake of the plot, he takes the part of Cyclops in this and Neal is in Wolverine's place.  
> * I own nothing. I'm just playing Frankenstein with these stories :)

              “Emma, slow down!” David snapped, grasping his daughter by the arm.

              “You’re father’s right,” Snow added forcefully, “There _has_ to be another way.”

              “That’s just it, Mom,” Emma replied, wrenching her arm free from her father’s grasp. “There _isn’t._ ”

              Emma held back an eye-roll as Henry, Killian, Neal, and Regina all tumbled out of Regina’s sedan. Even _more_ people to talk her out of this. She turned away, marching resolutely for the town line, unwilling to look her son in the eye. Or Killian. If she did, she may lose her nerve. Emma felt a warm hand on her elbow, and she froze. She knew that touch already. It never pulled or forced, always waiting on her to make a choice. She turned slowly to look into his soulful blue eyes.

              “Emma,” he choked brokenly, “don’t do this.”

              Tears blurred Emma’s vision as she took his hand in hers and brought it to her breast and pressed it against her heart. She leaned forward, pressing her forehead against his. Just before Killian could close the gap and press his lips to hers, she whispered one word.

              “Goodbye.”

              Then she pushed him away with a wave of her hand. He struggled, his eyes widening in terror as he realized she had frozen him with her magic. But not terror for himself.

              “No!” he screamed. Killian turned desperately for Regina who held a trembling Henry close, “Stop her!”

              Regina went to lift her hand, then grimaced in frustration, “She’s not letting me!”

              Emma ignored Killian as he cried out her name. She stopped just short of the town line and then lifted both hands. She held her right up towards the purple billowing clouds of Pan’s impending curse and her left towards the town line. She then sent a pulse of magic towards the crackling purple storm clouds, which pushed back violently against the white light. She turned towards the town line as she sent another burst of magic from her left hand. The magic surged around her, and her eyes began to glow with pure white light as she gazed back at her family. The magic coalesced in a shimmering, incandescent explosion, and when it faded . . .

              “She’s gone,” Neal whispered, but in the silence it echoed like a shot.

              “No!” Killian screamed, turning in rage to the man who had been a son, a rival . . . a friend. “Don’t say that!”

              He shoved at Neal, then swung with his hook, but it was half-hearted. Neal easily caught him by the left wrist, then caught Killian as he fell against Neal’s shoulder.

              “She’s gone,” Neal whispered again.

              “No, no,“ Killian sobbed, wrapping his arms around Neal in a loose embrace.

              Both men held each other up, mourning the love they had both lost. Neal blinked in shock, Killian wailed in brokenness, but it was a similar grief.

                            ********************************************************

              The silence in the loft was heavy, each person cocooned in their own personal grief.

              “Emma was always hesitant about that title – savior,” Snow finally spoke softly, her voice cracking, “always looking to the rest of us. Unsure of her abilities.”

              “Why did she do it? Why wouldn’t she let us save her?” Killian asked, his eyes never leaving the scene outside the loft’s window, his jaw clenching.

              “She might have,” David replied, “a year ago. But she changed. She became a hero.”

              “There must have been another way,” Neal argued.

              Regina sighed, smiling sadly at Henry, “She made a choice.”

              Henry tilted his chin up though his eyes shone with tears, “She saved us. She saved us all.”

                            ****************************************************

              “Hey, Hook.”

              Killian paused on the steps leading down from the loft and looked up at Neal who stood at the top of the landing.

              “Emma did make a choice, Killian. It was you.”

              Killian shook his head, unwilling to choose false flattery meant to ease his grief, “And why would you jump to that conclusion?”

              Neal sighed and came half way down the steps to stand on level with Killian, “It didn’t take a jump. She told me. When I asked her why she stood me up at the diner.”

              The two men held each other’s gaze for a moment or two. Then Neal gave a brief nod. It was enough.

              Almost family, to enemies, to rivals, and now . . . friends who once again understood the loss of the other.


End file.
